Christian Counseling
What is Christian Counseling?
Christian counseling, also known as biblical counseling and Christian psychology, blends your religion with the concepts of psychology to enhance your mental health and relationships. More precisely, this counseling method incorporates scripture and biblical principles to help you cope with life’s issues.
The reality is, when you are in the middle of unpleasant life events like the death of a loved one or pet, the loss of a job, poor health, financial challenges, and/or relationship issues, a strong and resilient religion may be precisely what is lacking from your life.
The ultimate purpose of Christian therapy is to help Christians discover behaviors that are inconsistent with God’s teachings, so they may become more receptive to God’s will – even when it’s not their will. Christian counselors believe that the bible is the ultimate instruction on how individuals, particularly Christians, should think and conduct themselves. In other words, they accept this sacred book as the one and only truth.
What Issues Do Christian Counselors Address?
The purpose of Christian counselors is to combine faith-based ideas and psychological teaching to assist individuals in better managing and/or overcoming any challenges in their life. More precisely, these mental health experts not only analyze, diagnose, and treat mental diseases, they also teach clients coping strategies, so they may better adapt to any changes that may arise in their life.
What Are Some Goals of Christian Counseling?
As indicated above Christian counselors handle a broad array of concerns, thus clients establish a wide range of objectives, ranging from adjustment issues to mental diseases.
Listed below are some of the most typical concerns and aims of counseling:
Conquering Marital Problems
Christian counseling puts a great lot of significance on the sacrament of marriage. When a couple joins a marriage, they are making a vow to love and respect one another for life. In the Christian religion, divorce is not considered an option, thus couples are urged to work through any issues together in marital therapy, rather than giving up on their relationships.
The reality is, that numerous difficulties may emerge in a marriage. These difficulties may, in consequence, have a negative influence on the connection. Some typical marriage troubles include adultery, communication problems, lack of intimacy, addiction, and disagreements. Therefore, the objective of Christian therapy is to assist couples to rebuild their broken relationships.
Coping with Parenting Challenges
While enjoyable, raising children is not easy. As a parent, you will experience numerous ups-and-downs, pleasures, and disappointments — that’s natural. In fact, there may be moments when parenting your kid is exceedingly tough, which is when a Christian marriage counselor may come into play.
He/she can help you on your parenting path. However, if your parenting issues are more in-depth or serious such as mental illness, physical afflictions, learning impairments, bullying, eating disorders, and/or developmental challenges, you may be sent to a therapist or psychiatrist. Christian therapy may also be extremely effective when you are unable to discern what your kid needs or if you get overwhelmed by the obligations that accompany parenthood. These counselors may offer you skills that will help you cope with parental demands.
Support For Mental Health Conditions
Having a mental condition is hard enough without having to deal with it alone. Counseling assists persons with mental diseases by giving them support and a place to express their concerns.
It is vital to note that persons who suffer from mental disorders – i.e. depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, or obsessive-compulsive disorder, frequently have lower self-esteem and self-acceptance, than those without mental illnesses. With Christian therapy, you learn how to understand that you are a Child of God – just like everyone else. It is this knowledge that offers you some much-needed comfort and peace when you need it the most.
Recovering From Grief & Loss
The loss of a loved one is sad, and the mourning phase might feel never-ending. But, for many, this is the moment they draw most heavily on their religion to help them get through this trying period. However, sometimes the pain is simply too profound to discover the Light of God.
Sometimes the surviving loved one gets “stuck” in a phase, throughout the mourning process — a stage that seems difficult to go beyond.
Healing From Substance Abuse & Addiction
Seeking assistance for addiction demands bravery. But, acknowledging that you have a problem with drugs, alcohol, and/or gambling is frequently the first step in seeking the treatment you need to turn your life around. Once you confess that you need assistance, a Christian counselor may offer you the support you need to break your “habit.” Moreover, Christian therapy may help you identify underlying problems that might be contributing to your addiction such as childhood trauma, sexual, physical, or emotional abuse, and/or poor self-esteem.
During Christian therapy sessions, you realize exactly how significant and wonderful you are in the Eyes of God. You also discover that you have the power to overcome your addiction. Furthermore, Christian counselors teach you skills that might help you turn towards your faith, instead of illicit drugs or harmful habits when life gets overwhelming or painful.
Improving Your Relationship with God and Strengthening Your Faith
In today’s fast-paced, materialistic society, it’s easy to lose sight of your religion and get “caught up” in the everyday stresses of life. With all of these stresses, your religion might be put to the side. However, it is during these high-pressured moments that you need your faith more than before.
Christian counselors understand these issues and are able to help you reconnect with God and your religion. Moreover, they may offer you practical techniques that you can use when you lose touch with your religion and get lost.
Who Should Seek Christian Counseling?
Anyone, who is facing psychological or health concerns should seek Christian therapy. It is vital to recognize that Christian therapy does not emphasize one specific problem, worry, or mental disease, rather, the purpose of this style of counselling is to address a wide variety of personal, relational, parent-child, social, and mental health concerns. So, instead of seeking secular or non-religious therapy for these challenges, Christian counseling leverages your religion to help you resolve and recover from them.
Reasons, why you should seek Christian therapy, include:
- Relationship, parent-child, or marital difficulties
- Parenting advice
- Mental disease or psychological anguish
- Grief and loss
- Poor goal-setting skills
- Low self-esteem and self-confidence
- Weak faith and/or a weak relationship with God
- Substance misuse or addiction
Will Christian Counseling Benefit Me?
Christian therapy may be particularly effective for Christians and people who have a strong faith or spirituality – yet you don’t have to be religious or spiritual to benefit from this therapeutic counseling technique. In reality, everyone – religious or non-religious may join in Christian therapy. If you battle with bereavement and/or relationship troubles, and can no longer manage these concerns alone, Christian therapy can most likely assist you.
In addition, if you have a strong faith and confidence in God, this sort of treatment will most likely assist you since it relies on biblical principles. The aim is that through improving your knowledge of the Bible, developing your relationship with God, and comprehending God’s instructions, you will be able to turn your life around and fight your issues.
You may benefit from Christian therapy if you are suffering from the following issues:
- Anxiety that inhibits you from doing ordinary duties
- Panic attacks
- Insomnia or being unable to fall asleep and/or remain asleep all night long
- Social isolation or avoiding spending time with friends and relatives
- Sudden severe weight loss or weight gain
- Feeling hopeless, helpless, and/or overwhelmed, or feeling unable to tackle your difficulties on your own
- Out-of-control, unreasonable fury
- A lack of interest in activities you used to like
- Feeling distant from your faith or God
What Happens During a Christian Counseling Session?
During the early sessions, your Christian counselor will aim to gain a “feel” of who you are via organized intakes (interviews) and comprehensive dialogues. Then, he/she will watch you, while you tell him/her about your problem(s) and how those difficulties make you “feel.”
Next, your counselor may ask you what you would want to achieve by the time you finish the counseling procedure. After that, you and your counselor will explore your objectives and design strategies to assist you to reach them. And, ultimately, you will either verbally agree to devote yourself 100 percent to the counseling process or you will sign a contract declaring your commitment to treatment.
After the initial few of sessions, you’ll be ready to plunge straight into treatment. During the later meetings, you will be given biblical homework and assignments, and you will discuss the outcomes in the following session. You will also have biblical texts to study at night — ones that will deepen your trust in God and His purpose.
The counselor will utilize these texts to help you recognize the mistake of your actions. In other words, he/she will utilize the bible to demonstrate to you how your behavior and cognitive processes are contradictory and incompatible with biblical principles. Christian counselors think that for individuals to fully recover from trauma, psychological anguish, mental disease, etc. they must turn to the bible.
They also think that in many instances, mental health disorders result from “sinful deeds” or acts that go against God’s precepts. When individuals conduct these “sinful acts,” it leads them to feel the turmoil and emotional pain. Therefore, the only method to heal mental suffering is to reaffirm one’s devotion to God – to eradicate sin from his/her life.
The value of offering services to others
As part of a person’s spiritual journey, he/she will certainly endure trials and sufferings along the road. This is a common feeling; no one is immune to life’s terrible periods. When a person is in sync with his/her spiritual health, he/she is receptive to receiving direction from his/her religion – counsel that allows him/her to face harsh circumstances with love, empathy, compassion, forgiveness, and self-acceptance.
How Can I Find a Good Christian Counselor?
There are several methods to discover an excellent Christian counselor in your region. Some of these techniques include collecting references from your doctors, friends, religious leaders, and/or other faith-based persons, who have experience with the counselor and can witness his/her methods, approach, and efficacy.
Another method is to conduct your research. In other words, study each possible counselor to make sure his/her values, spiritual views, personality, and style correspond with your own.
If you’re not too sure about attending weekly counseling sessions at an office, you may want to investigate online Christian counseling with a qualified counselor, psychologist, or social worker. The amazing thing about this strategy is that it enables you to seek aid with your challenges – no matter where you are.
